I'm super excited to publish today's founder interview. A group of curious material science students at MIT, while working on a project to help commercial buildings save on energy costs by heating people directly, developed a very low-powered thermal heating and cooling device for the wrist called the Embr Wave.

Their startup journey took a winding course through Greentown Labs to the MIT Skills Accelerator and later the MassChallenge accelerator. Along the way, they picked up an NSF grant, non-dilutive funding from Intel's "Make It Wearable" competition, and the Cool Ideas Award from Proto Labs. This validation led to a venture round from Intel Capital and Bose Ventures and a massively successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $630,000 from 3,000 backers. After four years of hard work, their product started shipping at the end of 2017.

Enjoy my conversation with Forbes "30 Under 30" Recipient and Embr Labs Co-Founder and CEO Sam Shames as we learn how his startup took advantage of what his professor coined "Luck Surface Area" to help out the thermally underserved population.

Website - https://embrlabs.com/

Twitter - @EmbrWave

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/embrwave/